Live from NPR News in Washington, I'm Rylan Barton. The Pentagon says the Iran War has cost

$25 billion so far. NPR's Quill Lawrence reports, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth testified

today on Capitol Hill.

Hegsteth was defending the administration's proposed $1.45 trillion defense budget with a focus on rebuilding U.S. military industry.

But it's the first time he's appeared under oath since the Iran war started.

And Democrat Adam Smith asked why President Trump ordered the attack after claiming to have

destroyed Iran's nuclear weapons program last year.

Well, their nuclear facilities have been obliterated.

Underground, they're buried and

watching them 24-7. We had to start this war, you just said, 60 days ago, because the nuclear

weapon was an imminent threat. Now you're saying that it was completely obliterated? They had not

given up their nuclear ambitions.

Higgs has said the biggest adversaries are Democrats and some Republicans who are criticizing the war.

Quill Lawrence NPR News.

Florida Republicans gave a boost to President Trump's national redistricting drive to shape the midterm elections today.

From member station WFSU, Tristan Wood reports the legislature approved new

voting maps that could flip four congressional seats now held by Democrats. It still needs his

signature, but Republican Governor Ron DeSantis's office drew the map that divides Democratic votes

in central and South Florida. DeSantis says Florida's population growth requires redistricting,

but also indicated it would create four new Republican-leaning districts. Democratic Florida State

Senator Carlos Guillermo Smith said the motivation for the redraw is partisanship.

This map is clearly designed to entrench power rather than reflect the will of the people.

...